*Our matching friendship tattoos
It is 5 am and my BFF and I have not slept. Nicole, who I have named Nikita Knockabitch, and I decide to go to Margaritaville for breakfast. We are the first people there so we get the best balcony seats and the freshest Bloody Mary's. The streets of Vegas are mostly dead and a semi-cool breeze make the entire scene perfect. I look across the street and see Pure, the nightclub of the rich and famous. Nicole is frantically looking for her wallet and we realize that we lost my camera too. Fuckin' a! Nicole shortly finds her wallet under a napkin but the camera is lost forever. All those memories, gone. No, they will stay with us forever and become another one of those stories we laugh about the next time we see eachother. FUCKIT! I had so many plans for this day, WFTDA workshops, skating at some point, but the fatigue is hitting us softly. After our meal I convince Nicole to walk over to Pure with me. "If they let Kevin Federline in, they'll have to let me in", I say to Nicole. She really does not want to go over there but I drag her. We find a security guard who tells us that the line starts at 4 pm and doors open at 10. He asks if we were planning on waiting all day. Yeah right!! "I just thought rich people partied into the morning", I mumble. Oh well, guess it's time to go to bed. Nicole's husband will be here soon and we have to get some shut eye before he comes to take us out to eat again. We get to my room and I crash hard only to have to wake up in an hour and a half. Poor Nicole was too tired to sleep. Once again, the message comes, I'm here.
We drag ourselves downstairs and there is Gary waiting for us. Nicole and I try to act normal but my act will soon fall apart without some coffee. We follow Gary to an uber swanky restaurant and at this point I think I start muttering to myself because Gary and Nicole are laughing at me and I'm not sure why. More Bloody Mary's, more food, more coffee, uhhggg...I feel like I am going to explode. I have decided to ditch RollerCon for sleep and head to my room to start packing. It takes me FOREVER to pack because my stuff is scattered all over the place. Finally I meet Nicole and Gary at the bar and they are swilling drinks. The bartender offers me a drink and I beg for water. We decide to head for their hotel. I am not sure what it is called but it is shaped like a huge pyramid and is decorated in Egyptian style. Oddly enough I run into my girl Andy Nihilate from Pioneer Valley Roller Derby at their hotel on the other side of town. Andy and I first met about a year ago when our league played hers. She ended up staying at my house and we bonded over our sons who are about the same age. Andy and her boyfriend Jay, from the band The Prozacs got married while at RollerCon this year. I guess that's what Vegas is for. I talk to Andy and Jay for a little while and introduce them to Gary and Nicole. "It is so cool how you have this derby community and know people from everywhere", Nicole says to me. I had never really thought about it but now that I do it is pretty kickass to know that I have derby girls all over the world.
Roller Derby is such a bigger community than your own league. RollerCon helped me to see this and put it all in context. It is not just you as a single skater, or you as a league, it is all of us in this together. New Hampshire Roller Derby has helped me to see this too. We have skaters from other leagues come and teach us stuff I never knew and we form friendships with our would be opponents. It is a family, a family I am happy to be a part of.
This is pretty much where my adventure ended. I caught my plane on time and came home to my other family, with thoughts of skating still lingering in my head. I am so happy that I never gave up all the times I wanted to. Thank you Joanie Weston, Leo Seltzer, Ann Calvello, WFTDA, Texas Rollergirls, and all of you who brought Roller Derby to life, you know who you are.
Signing out,
Vivala SLAM
